1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an ink set. More specifically, the present invention relates to an ink set used for an ink jet recording method in which two liquids of a reactive solution and a color ink composition are adhered to a recording medium to perform recording, and an ink jet recording method using the ink set.
2. Related Art
An ink jet recording method is a recording method in which droplets of ink composition are sprayed and adhered to a recording medium to perform printing. In the ink jet recording method, printing using an ink composed of only a single color such as black, expression of a variety of colors using an ink set composed of three colors of yellow (Y), magenta (M) and cyan (C), or an ink set composed of four colors including black as well as these colors is made. In addition, as an ink set with better color reproduction than the ink set composed of these three or four colors, an ink set containing color ink such as orange or green in addition to the respective YMCK color inks is suggested.
In addition, in the ink jet recording method, an ink jet recording method using a combination of color inks such as YMCK and a reactive solution, that is, two components (for example JP-A-9-207424) is suggested. In accordance with the ink jet recording method using two components, when a reactive solution is brought into contact with an ink on a recording medium, the reactive solution breaks down the aggregation of ink components such as pigments, the ink components aggregate to form an aggregate on the recording medium, and high-quality printed materials which have high color density, and minimized permeation and unevenness can be thus obtained. However, color properties or permeation may be insufficient in some cases depending on the type of recording medium used.
However, in the ink jet recording method, an aqueous ink is generally used for general papers, but an aqueous ink for ink jet recording which can form good images even on a low-absorbent recording medium as a recording medium is suggested. For example JP-A-2007-277342 suggests that images with superior gloss or color reproductivity can be realized on a low-absorbent recording medium such as printing paper using an ink containing a sparingly water-soluble 1,2-alkanediol such as 1,2-octanediol and a surfactant.
The present inventors discovered that images with superior color properties and improved permeation can be obtained by applying an ink set, in which an ink composition containing sparingly water-soluble 1,2-alkanediol used for low-absorbent recording media such as printing paper is combined with a reactive solution containing a specific reactant, to plain paper. The present invention has been completed, based on this discovery.